Woo! Jomie is back! And surprisingly, we skip another six years in time, since the previous episode. The biggest surprise has to be Swena, who turned into a journalist (no sign of her husband yet, did she divorce from him?), looking for the origin of the Myu. Finally I understand why she left, back in episode six, and I must say that it indeed was a better decision for her to leave Keith. After all, now she can act on her own, which will become much more interesting than just one of Keith’s henchmen. I really like what I saw from her in this episode, and she’s showing some great promise for the future! 🙂
Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Sam. For the entire episode, we don’t see both of them. Keith has probably become the most elite of elite, though I do reckon that this wasn’t possible for Sam. Does this mean that Sam has left him, or do the two of them still have contact?
In any case, this episode also explains what the Myu have been doing for the past few years: wander around aimlessly. Jomie at one point suggested trying to contact the planet earth by sending various peace-messages. These messages just didn’t work at all, and when Jomie found out that they caused the death of a Myu (Shiroe), he stopped doing this. Now, ten years later, there still isn’t a sign of Earth. The interesting thing is that Physis seems to have abandoned the idea of going to earth, and predicted a red planet to be their saviour. Near the end of the episode, they reach it.
I’m not sure what it is, but this episode greatly increased my interest for this series. Especially after rewatching it, I realize how good this episode really was. There isn’t really much tension, but many interesting things happen. Seeing that Jomie still has contact with the youngest people on the “Moby Dick” (aka, the children we saw in the first episodes) also was really interesting. They’re still treated as children, even though they grew up, simply because there’s nobody younger than them.
These “children” actually come up with the idea to make children the “natural way”, instead of what has been the custom. It seems strange for him, to only think of such a thing after ten years, but it does make sense. After all, if you’ve grown up, knowing nothing about the subject, it’s not like you’re able to take the initiative on these issues. Near the end of the episode, we also see two of the children confess to each other.
To be honest, during this episode I kept comparing Toward the Terra with Heroic Age, and then I really realized how truly crap the latter is. Both anime feature exiles who struggle to survive, though Heroic Age had to come up with an unbelievably strong Age who keeps on fighting until there is peace, and that’s about all there is to the storyline. Compare that to Toward the Terra and its complex storytelling from three different parties.
Overall, the climax was just great. The next episode will probably focus on the exploration of the new red planet, and I honestly can’t wait. I do wonder, though, when we’ll see Keith getting in contact with the Myu. I originally believed that the previous episode would cause him to question Mother Eliza, but that seems to be not true at all, since he still remains an elite. When I first saw his picture on the OP, I thought that he’d also be some king of Myu, though I was totally wrong on that one, it seems.]]>
Toward the Terra – 10
Hey, nice summary! I just can’t wait for the sub!
The point of Toward the terra vs. Heroic age, i tend to think of it this way. I guess not many average teens/kids would appreciate the breadth and depth of Terra since it require maturity, to some extent, to really enjoy the series.
Heroic age on the other hand is more or less another Gundam series with more focused point of view, less mech, less crap, and attempting to look grander. The serie most likely to get hold ground of average mecha fans; grand but simpel plot and lots of Diahne£#&#%D hime sama cr@p. Regardless, I still watch it lol 😀
Ack, I really need to catch up with this series ^_^;; It looks from your much-appreciated summaries like the plot only gets better from an already great start ^^
If you were already rocked by the ending of the previous episode, i.e. Episode 9, with this episode onwards there will be more events coming up that will do the same and probably more. Brace yourself 😉
Once again, you’re right–this anime is fantastic. I’m not watching Heroic Age, but Towards the Terra is one of those shows which is so grand in its depth (already!) that its just breathtaking to watch the series unfold. Only, just a few comments: did you not feel that this episode was at all rushed? I mean, okay, everything needed to be in there, and god i loved Jomy with this kids–it shows how much he’s matured and how he really has grown, and he still loves them (he was ever so good with them in earlier episodes), but I kept feeling that there was just this something missing–like, its only said that Jomy is hung up over Shiroe’s death, we never get any real visceral proof of this in the episode, and suddenly he’s bouncing about because he’s really been considering their future this whole time? It just felt a mite disconnected to me, though i have to say that the end with Nazuca was brilliantly panned out, even if the whole love confession was awfully predictable, it again gave the feel of time ever slipping by. And from what the preview hints, more timeskipping is to come as well as some quality Sam time! (Not that I miss him–he is awfully spineless.)
Before I wrap up this novel of a comment, I have to also say that Jomy (who looks a bit older, even!) trusting Physis and really just walking and acting like a leader was really really great. I mean, this anime didn’t just say “Jomy grew up and now commands the Myus and WOW EVERYONE LOVES HIM” but really delved into the way he works, the way Jomy’s built up their trust and formed true bonds with these people who he feels he has to save if only because of Soldier Blue and everyone the other did for him.
Thanks again for the blog!
(PS: the OP? so has me thrown for a loop. i give up on guessing.)
Hmm, to be honest, I didn’t really get that feeling of this episode being rushed, but that may be because I watched the episode raw, with my limited knowledge of japanese.
But you do have a point, I would have loved to see Jomie, actually being hung up over Shiroe’s death, instead of hearing about it. I think the disconnected feeling comes from the creators, who wanted to show a lot of Jomie’s development in just this episode, and I must say that the development they put into it was really great. 🙂
Just a comment, I dont think that Jomy realised that a Myu died.. All they say is that he tried to reach out to this person with the sad thoughts and couldnt get a hold of him. I bet he is gonna find out later in the show that shiroe is the one that died and blame himself for not saving him when he had the chance..